What is Project Management?

One of the very basic and valid questions is “What is project management?”. Seems like a simple one the answer of the question is quite often wrong or even in some case there is no answer. In order to answer this question we have to know What is a project? . I would like to share and to use the official PMI (Project Management Institute) definition:

A Project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.

A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources.

And a project is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a specific set of operations designed to accomplish a singular goal. So a project team often includes people who don’t usually work together – sometimes from different organizations and across multiple geographies.

The development of software for improving a business process, construction of a building or bridge, the relief effort after a natural disaster, the expansion of sales into a new geographic market — all are projects.

And all must be expertly managed to deliver the on-time, on-budget results, learning and integration that organizations need.

Project management, then, is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.